20 May 2012

The Antipodean Man suggested on Friday night that we visit Camden Market on Sunday. He had previously been in 2000 with his cousin and her husband, but I had never been and it was something on my tourist bucket list that had been screaming to be ticked off for the last five years. Since it was such a huge day, I didn't think one post could really cover it all, so I'll be covering it over two posts, today and Wednesday.

When we arrived at Camden Town station, I stepped out and groaned. I'm not good with crowds and as per usual, hundreds of people seemed to have congregated around the station entrance. I thought to myself that it might not have been such a good idea to come here, but I soldiered on regardlessly.

As we walked up the high street, all nerves disappeared. There were a mixture of high street stores, but not the normal ones like New Look or Oasis, more like American Apparel and H&M, and market stores. It looked pretty funky and I was ready to get my shop on! We looked around the front of the first market - the appropriately named "Camden Market" (actually known as Buck Street Market) and waited for a friend who was on her way to join us.

As our friend was running late, we walked further up towards Camden Lock - I didn't realize it was named because there was an actual lock there and was quite excited in a completely nerdy way to see a boat going through the canal lock. The Antipodean Man quickly explained how it worked and we watched the boat go through along with quite a few other people. I wonder if the man who operates the lock gets a complex? He had an audience all day long.

Once we crossed the canal, we entered in to Camden Lock Market, which was established in 1975 and was the original market and started it all. I loved the handmade craft, especially the leatherwork and The Antipodean Man loved the art and spent more than a few minutes perusing the photography stalls. We didn't have plans to actually go in any particular direction, so we stumbled on to the food stalls next and couldn't help breaking our healthy eating habits to demolish a rather large jam donut, although after discussion, we thought it really wasn't worth it as it looked a whole lot better than it tasted.

Our friend called just as we finished the donut and after meeting her at the tube station, we walked back up to Buck Street Market. We'd only seen the front stalls earlier as we didn't want to go in too far without our friend and having to repeat ourselves later in the day. I was really disappointed - Buck Street Market was not at all what I had expected, compared to the small section of Camden Lock Market, BSM was full of cheaply manufactured synthetic clothes and fake designer handbags. You couldn't walk past three or four stalls without seeing an exact repeat of stock, it was just like a mass produced chain store out in the open. All in all? A real shame....

I'll leave it here for now though, with a promise that it did get better! I'll be posting the second half of my trip to Camden Market on Wednesday, so I hope to see you here again then!

19 May 2012

Well, well, well. Someone took a blogging holiday and forgot to inform the general population about it, didn't they? Please feel free to slap me on the wrist and tell me I'm a naughty girl. More on that later.....

It's almost Sunday here in not-so-sunny London and that means it's time to start The Sunday Session!

There are no rules.

On Sundays I play music on my blog.

Old or new or in between.

Related or not.

But always songs I love!

Celine Dion - It's all coming back to me now

You can blame Glee for this one. I grew up on Celine Dion - my mother has been a fan since her days of singing in French and I guarantee that when we picked CDs for long car trips, Mum's entire selection was good old Celine! I hadn't listened to a lot of her stuff for a long time, but when Rachel Berry sung this in their Nationals performance, I got goosebumps. I honestly didn't think that anyone else could do this song justice, but Lea Michele is spot on. Saying that, the original will always be the best.

Emeli Sande - Next to Me

Not a brand new song, but it's been on high rotation on my iPhone since it's release. Emeli's song is catchy and really fun to sing too, with all those ooooh ooohs! I also happen to think Emeli has a really lovely voice and it's so nice to hear a song like this these days when the majority of the UK Top 40 is manufactured pop rubbish, dubstep or crap-rap.

Anyway, I hand over the DJ reins to you now. Share your choices on the linky!

27 Apr 2012

Hello everyone! I am back on solid ground, freezing my butt off again and ready to get back to real life after a wonderful week at Plaja Es Canyer in Ibiza, Spain. It was a great holiday and I can't wait to show you some of the photos I took and give you the royal rundown next week. But, as it is Friday, it's time for my weekly Friday Thoughts post. As usual, please do share your thoughts in the comments or over at your own blog (and make sure to let me know so I can come and check them out!)

Currently loving my dryer. It's so not environmentally friendly but with a suitcase and a washing basket full of stuff, I need to get everything clean and dry as soon as possible.

Currently thinking about a little side project I've been working on. Without giving too much away, it's a small "businessy" type blog that I'm part way through working on. I'm still umm-ing and ahh-ing about whether I want to go ahead with it now as I have a fair bit of stuff going on outside of blog land and therefore not sure if I can give it the full attention that it needs.

Currently anticipating my start date for my new role! My agent called me on my first day in Ibiza to let me know that everything had been approved and I had a firm verbal job offer. I finally went and sorted out all of the paperwork involved and my references are being checked today so I hope that I will be able to start Wednesday next week!

Currently watching nothing. The Antipodean Man is home sick and has been watching TV on the computer since we got home on Tuesday, so I have been without my usual entertainment, so instead, I've been re-reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Currently wishing that I could be back on the beach. It was a lovely 22 - 25 degrees back there and it's averaging about 7 degrees here in London. Brr!

15 Apr 2012

Hello Sunday Sessioners! I hope you've had a great week and an even greater weekend. The premise of The Sunday Sessions is simple:

There are no rules.

On Sundays I play music on my blog.

Old or new or in between.

Related or not.

But always songs I love!

Here are my picks for this week. You can play along by linking up below. Can't wait to hear your picks.

I am seriously loving me some Dr. Dre & Eminem at the moment. There's something hauntingly beautiful about this song that just gets me, every time I listen to it. I've loved Eminem since I first heard "The Real Slim Shady" and this song is just a reminder of what a versatile musician he is. He does funny rap, serious rap and everything in between.

{Warning: This song does contain expletives}
Nicki Minaj is a bit like Vegemite. People seem to either love her or hate her. I think she's cute and quirky and her songs are fun (well the ones that don't seem to have an excess of swear words are). This has been my "getting ready" song this week and I've been caught numerous times by The Antipodean Man jumping around the bedroom dancing away to this song whilst applying makeup or brushing my hair!